March 12, 2018

What an amazingly rich passage of Scripture we have this morning! Here’s how it breaks down:

Beginning of the Lord’s Supper (14-23)

The purpose of the Lord’s Supper is to remind us of the Gospel. It is an active way for us to personalize the shed blood and broken body of Christ. Another passage of scripture that teaches on the Lord’s Supper is found in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29—

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

We should consistently be examining our hearts before the Lord, and the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace that God has given to us so that we can do that together. Practically, do you consistently examine your heart before God? How do you apply the Gospel to yourself everyday?

Who is the greatest? (24-30)

This is one of the greatest examples of the disciples teaching what not to do. The question of who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God is a question that has already been answered: God is the Greatest. Jesus flips the question on its head when he declares that the greatest in the Kingdom are the servants. Our roles in the Kingdom are to be servants of the King! Do you live more for God’s Kingdom, or your place in the kingdom?

Jesus predicts Peter’s denial. (31-34)

Peter is one of the greatest accounts of life change we see in the New Testatment; he goes from denying Jesus to being a pillar of the early church. Here we see that Jesus knows his heart and that Peter, like all of his disciples, will abandon Him in his hour of need. Notice, though, that Jesus already knows that he will be restored, and that Jesus is praying against Satan having any more to do with him than he already will.

Jesus fulfills Scripture. (35-38)

All of Scripture points to Jesus. Jesus going to the cross is not an accident, but was in the sovereign plan of God from the beginning. Since sin entered the world, God had been orchestrating this event that would ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus.

3 thoughts on “March 12, 2018”

24 Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.

Every time I read this verse I am astounded at their lack of understanding. These men spent 3 years walking with Jesus, watching him perform miracles, and hearing him preach to the masses, yet they couldn’t comprehend the cross and the great sacrifice Jesus was preparing to make for humanity.

We are blessed to have God’s Word and know the complete story. I’m certain I would have been just as clueless as the disciples sitting around the table with Jesus. Verse 24 illustrates how steeped is sin all men are and how desperately we need Jesus.

Remembering our rescue from certain death, a beautiful Redeemer, our need for God’s mercy — the Passover was a time to give thanks to God for His great provision of a Savior.

The Lord instructs the heart to remain in humility (v.24-30), and humility is rightly placed when found on a firm foundation of dependence, that is faith in Christ (v.32).

For three years Jesus had arranged for His disciples’ needs to be met (often) supernaturally, (v.35). But with the cross in view, He instructs how His disciples are to use normal means to provide for their own support and protection (v.36). God is glorified through His miraculous provision as well as through His everday providence.

Jesus would now meet their greatest need (v.37), our greatest need, by the fulfillment of old testament prophecy as “He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12, ESV)